MSC Pre-assessment of Orange Roughy

In 2013, MSC pre-assessments of the four main orange roughy fisheries (ORH MEC, ORH3B ESCR, ORH3B NWCR and ORH7A) were undertaken by MRAG Americas. These updated the 2009 MSC pre-assessments and accounted for any changes since that time.

You can download MRAG's Pre-Assessment Report and all the documentation made public by Deepwater Group and the Ministry for Primary Industries during the assessment below.

Since then, three of these fisheries have proceeded to full MSC assessment (ORH3B ESCR, ORH3B NWCR and ORH7A). You can track their progress, here.

MRAG PRE-ASSESSMENT

principle 1

"A fishery must be conducted in a manner that does not lead to over-fishing or depletion of the exploited populations and, for those populations that are depleted, the fishery must be conducted in a manner that demonstrably leads to their recovery."

The intent of this principle is to ensure that the productive capacities of the resources are maintained at high levels and are not sacrificed in favour of short term interests.

Principle 2

"Fishing operations should allow for the maintenance of the structure, productivity, function and diversity of the ecosystem (including habitat and associated dependent and ecologically related species) on which the fishery depends."

The intent of this principle is to encourage management of fisheries from an ecosystem perspective under a system designed to restrain the impacts of the fishery on the ecosystem.

Principle 3

"The fishery is subject to an effective management system that respects local, national and international laws and standards and incorporates institutional and operational frameworks that require use of the resource to be responsible and sustainable."

The intent of this principle is to ensure that there is an institutional and operational framework for implementing Principles 1 and 2, appropriate to the size and scare of the fishery.